Man City vs Brighton team news with one doubt and four ruled out for Premier League clash

Pep Guardiola could be without three key players still for Saturday’s Premier League clash with Brighton & Hove Albion.

Manchester City have six days to prepare for the meeting with the Seagulls as they didn’t play in midweek due to the postponement of their fixture with Arsenal. City were, of course, last in action on Sunday as their unbeaten start to the season came to an end with a 1-0 loss at Anfield.

The Blues were without Kyle Walker, Kalvin Phillips and John Stones for that match, but will hope the latter is back in time for the game against Brighton. Speaking last week, ahead of the loss to Liverpool, Guardiola said: “All of them will be out. John will be back, I don’t know when, but maybe one week or 10 days. Kalvin is getting better and improving a lot. Kyle still is out.”

Stones hasn’t played at club level in over a month due to a hamstring issue he picked up during the recent international break, but both City and England fans will be hoping the defender has recovered in time for the visit of Brighton. However, the former Everton man wasn’t pictured in City’s latest training gallery, which was published on Wednesday.

As for Roberto De Zerbi’s side, they drew 0-0 with Nottingham Forest on Tuesday despite registering 19 shots during the match. The Italian is yet to pick up a win from his opening four matches in charge on the south coast, a fact that is unlikely to change this weekend.

However, De Zerbi doesn’t have many injury concerns at present and is missing just two players. Jakub Moder is a long-term absentee, while Kaoru Mitoma picked up an ankle injury in the loss to Brentford last week and won’t feature at the Etihad this weekend.

Speaking after the draw with Forest on Tuesday, the Brighton boss said: "There is a problem. I think he [Mitoma] can come back in 10-15 days. I think after that he can play with Brighton and after that will be the World Cup.”

Doubts: Stones (City)

Ruled out: Kyle Walker (City), Phillips (City), Moder (Brighton), Mitoma (Brighton)